The Transport Department (TD) said today (November 16) that an online group tickets pre-booking arrangement for shuttle bus services on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will be provided.

The TD added that the operator is preparing and testing the online group tickets pre-booking system in full swing with an aim of starting the arrangement next Friday (November 23). Tour agencies and group organisers will be able to buy shuttle bus tickets for specific dates and time slots from the following day (November 24) through the online pre-booking system. They will also be able to buy round-trip tickets at the same time. The operator will announce the details of the online group tickets pre-booking services next week.

The TD said that at present more than 60 per cent of passengers using shuttle bus services for inbound and outbound trips via the Hong Kong Port are group tourists. It is expected that the pre-booking services can effectively manage and adjust the passenger flows of various time slots. The system can also prevent tour groups from departing from or arriving at the Hong Kong Port at the same time and shorten the waiting time for passengers to board.

The TD appealed to tour agencies and group organisers to better plan their journeys by pre-booking the shuttle bus services. Group tourists who have not pre-booked the shuttle bus services will be required to queue up for boarding after buying the tickets on-site.

At present, the shuttle bus operator has deployed 138 buses of its permanent fleet and will continue to hire more than 30 additional buses from the cross-boundary coach trade during the weekends to deal with possible cross-boundary passenger surges. Moreover, crowd control measures, including separate queuing lines for individual and group tourists leaving for Zhuhai, will also be implemented during the departure peak hours in the evening in order to improve the queuing order and efficiency of boarding.